Part of an exceedingly rare breed -- Nashville natives who've called the city home since birth -- Gabe Lee is one of the music city's true hometown heroes. His third album, The Hometown Kid, is out Oct. 28 via Torrez Music Group. It aims to capture his complex relationship with the place he calls home through a mix of personal vignettes and character studies told inside a sonic landscape of country, bluegrass, southern rock, folk and gospel.
Videos by Wide Open Country
Much like 2019's farmland and 2020's Honky Tonk Hell, Lee recorded The Hometown Kid inside the familiar confines of Farmland Studios in South Nashville. Whether he's laying down tracks solo acoustic, or with a full southern rock ensemble, the space has become a home away from home for Lee, and where he often seeks refuge to write and workshop new music. You don't have to look far on the new album to find an example, with opening track "Wide Open" being one that Lee says he recorded early on during The Hometown Kid sessions before returning to and re-cut it again months later.
Lee's strong faith in Farmland Studios, and in his team at Torrez Music Group, can be traced back to his childhood and his parents. Taiwanese immigrants who came to America in the 1980s, Lee's parents helped introduce the future musician to the piano through gospel music and church hymns. Lee recalls spending time after Sunday mass banging around on the church's drums and keys, helping to set the stage for the musical path he's on now. Despite no longer being a regular churchgoer, the gospel sound can be heard throughout The Hometown Kid, most notably in album closer "Angel Band."
"I've always appreciated the strong hold that my parents have on their faith," says Lee. "I'm a firm believer that all musicians and songwriters chasing their dreams need to have a similar faith in themselves and what they're doing, otherwise they'll crash and burn. 'Angel Band' seeks to capture that dichotomy with a hopeful message comparing the belief that you'll break out in the music industry to a church-like faith that offers up a chance at redemption and eternal paradise in heaven."
Lee doesn't just preach the message of faith distilled in "Angel Band." He practices it in his own life. And it shows throughout The Hometown Kid. He's keeping his head down, following the example of artists such as Chris Knight, Hayes Carll, American Aquarium, Nikki Lane and Brent Cobb -- many of whom he's opened for. He's not taking anything or anyone for granted.
"I'm hoping to stick around long enough to get on that level," says Lee. "I know it's going to be a slow-building climb up, but I'm confident we'll make it. It just won't be overnight, which is comforting because we enjoy the work, the chase and keeping everything in front of us."
This sentiment is tackled in personal vignettes throughout the project's dozen tracks, such as the country gospel ballad "Longer I Run -- Hammer Down" to the bluegrass-y "Long Gone" and the Stapleton-esque "Over You" to the slow-building, piano-driven "Buffalo Road."
That being said, that determination is arguably best encapsulated on "Rusty," a rock 'n roll anthem that takes on a humble tone as Lee sings of leaving town due to strained relationships only to return later to make amends. It also explores the push-pull he has with Nashville from touring, which leaves him longing for his bed back home while on the road and missing the road once he's back on it.
"I wanted to paint the picture of someone who needs to face the consequences of their actions rather than constantly running from them," says Lee. "'Rusty' is about being broken down to the point where you're finally asking for help and admitting you messed up. I feel like a common theme in a lot of my songs has been the idea of being broken down before you can be built up. It's a reminder that change and starting over is a healthy practice as long as you do it with grace and with the knowledge of where you fell short prior. That's why I reference getting home at the end of the chorus when I sing 'won't you send out an angel on patrol for it to save my soul.'"
However, Lee also flips the script, bringing characters other than himself to the forefront on cuts like "Kinda Man" and "Lonely." A dishwasher named Tim, who Lee got to know while bartending at Sunda, a Southeast Asian restaurant in Nashville's The Gulch neighborhood, served as partial inspiration for "Kinda Man." The track explores how we look back on our past, wishing we could be young again while also acknowledging all the things we could've done better along the way.
The latter was the case for Tim, who went to jail as a young man, serving more than 35 years. Once released, he worked a dishwashing job, scraping by before succumbing to stomach cancer in 2021. Even with his damning diagnosis, Lee says that Tim, a huge Tennessee Volunteers football fan, was always a joy to be around.
"The song really captures the idea of the things of a man that I could have been," says Lee. "Tim was just one of many people who look back on their lives with regret or thinking about how they could've been better than they actually were. In his case he was reformed but in a very mortal state due to his cancer. I gravitated to that because as a dishwasher in his 70s he had nothing to lose. He didn't complain and was at peace with dying. He was in a position of mortality that most of us fear, but he approached it fearlessly. If that isn't the human element at its finest, I don't know what is."
Another "one of a kind of a man" was Justin Townes Earle, an artist lost far too soon following an accidental overdose in 2020 and who Lee channels in sound and spirit on "Lonely." Although the two never met, Lee looks to Earle as a huge influence. As such, he wanted to write a song touching on Earle's story through the lens of the loneliness he felt during the early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic.
"I'm someone who's more insular and likes to have their alone time, especially when I'm feeling creative," says Lee. "There's peace to it, but on the flipside it's also a nightmare for many people to be alone. To be stuck in an environment like that is something I tried to capture when writing 'Lonely.' It was my way of sympathizing and empathizing with Justin's story while also shining a light on how nobody is immune to struggles with mental health and substance abuse."
In the end, The Hometown Kid embraces all the quirks and characters that make Nashville what it is, from bridesmaids on Broadway to dishwashers facing their last days and people struggling with their inner demons and more. Lee hopes that the album's listeners, and attendees at his live shows, find something relatable in the new songs, something they can rally around rather than turning to darker alternatives for a false feeling of safety.
"I've had countless people tell me that country music has saved their lives. And after the events of the last few years, I'm realizing that none of what they're saying is hyperbole," says Lee. "As I've expanded my network and toured more, I've noticed just how broad and fragile the American experience is. It leads people to turn to music and art because it's a saving grace for them. If they're not clinging onto it -- or something else keeping them stable -- then oftentimes it's drugs and alcohol they turn to for safety. I want people to be able to use my music as a blanket and pillow to comfort themselves during their moments of darkness and remind them that they aren't alone in their struggle."
READ MORE: Emily Scott Robinson's 'Built on Bones' and the Magic of Feminine Energy
